100 Top & Most Popular Ayn Rand Quotes

1. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
2. “The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”
3. “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”
4. “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
5. “The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
6. “Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.”
7. “To sell your soul is the easiest thing in the world. That’s what everybody does every hour of his life. If I asked you to keep your soul – would you understand why that’s much harder?”
8. “The only way to deal with fear is to face it head on.”
9. “Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it’s yours.”
10. “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights, cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
11. “Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”
12. “The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.”
13. “Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men.”
14. “Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”
15. “The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”
16. “The greatest achievements of the human mind are generally received with distrust.”
17. “The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life-by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality. The training he needs is theoretical, i.e., conceptual. He has to be taught to think, to understand, to integrate, to prove. He has to be taught the essentials of the knowledge discovered in the past-and he has to be equipped to acquire further knowledge by his own effort.”
18. “Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.”
19. “The government was set to protect man from criminals – and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government. The Bill of Rights was not directed against private citizens, but against the government – as an explicit declaration that individual rights supersede any public or social power.”
20. “I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it

21. “I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
22. “The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. Whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.”
23. “The only good thing you can do with your life is to find something you love to do and do it to the best of your ability.”
24. “The worst guilt is to accept an undeserved guilt.”
25. “The mind is an attribute of the individual. There is no such thing as a collective brain. There is no such thing as a collective thought.”
26. “The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.”
27. “There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.”
28. “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
29. “The hardest part of every battle is the decision to fight it.”
30. “The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence.”
31. “Freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion.”
32. “The power of the market comes from the fact that it is a free, voluntary exchange, which leaves everyone better off.”
33. “The only value an institution can have is the value it gives to individuals.”
34. “The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.”
35. “The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.”
36. “The person who loves everybody and feels at home everywhere is the true hater of mankind. He expects nothing of men, so no form of depravity can outrage him.”
37. “The only alternative to coexistence is codestruction.”
38. “It is not advisable, James, to venture unsolicited opinions. You should spare yourself the embarrassing discovery of their exact value to your listener.”
39. “Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”
40. “Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.”
41. “I don’t make comparisons. I never think of myself in relation to anyone else. I just refuse to measure myself as part of anything. I’m an utter egotist.”
42. “The best among us are not more moral than the worst among us. They are just better at controlling themselves.”
43. “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
44. “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”
45. “The only proper role of government in the economic realm is to protect property rights, adjudicate disputes, and provide a legal framework in which voluntary trade is protected.”
46. “The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.”
47. “I do not think that it is necessarily the case that what is true of society is necessarily true of the individual.”
48. “Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without

48. “Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction.”
49. “Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”
50. “The only thing that will stop you from fulfilling your dreams is you.”
51. “Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.”
52. “I do not think of myself as a woman writer. I’m a writer. Period.”
53. “The smallest minority on earth is the individual. Those who deny individual rights cannot claim to be defenders of minorities.”
54. “I swear, by my life and my love of it, that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
55. “Individual rights are not negotiable. They are unalienable.”
56. “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”
57. “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
58. “The only way to deal with fear is to face it head-on.”
59. “The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life—by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality.”
60. “Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man’s mind.”
61. “Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think.”
62. “Man is a being of self-made soul.”
63. “The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”
64. “The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.”
65. “To say ‘I love you’ one must first be able to say the ‘I.'”
66. “Morality is a code of values to guide man’s choices and actions—the choices and actions that determine the purpose and the course of his life.”
67. “Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.”
68. “Money demands that you sell, not your weakness to men’s stupidity, but your talent to their reason.”
69. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
70. “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.”
71. “The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”
72. “Productive work is the road of man’s unlimited achievement and calls upon the highest attributes of his character: his creativity, his ambition, his self-esteem, his capacity for self-discipline.”
73. “The only way to deal with a fear is to face it.”
74. “Love is an expression and assertion of self-esteem, a response to one’s own values in the person of another.”

75. “Man is not the best of things in the universe. But the universe is a succession of better and better things, and man is last in the order of emergence.”
76. “The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.”
77. “Man is a being of self-made soul, and thus must create his own values and meanings in life.”
78. “The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
79. “To achieve, you need thought. You have to know what you are doing and that’s real power.”
80. “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”
81. “Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.”
82. “The truth is not for all men, but only for those who seek it.”
83. “I am not primarily an advocate of capitalism, but of egoism; and I am not primarily an advocate of egoism, but of reason. If one recognizes the supremacy of reason and applies it consistently, all the rest follows.”
84. “The only thing that will ever be called happiness by human beings is the satisfaction of their needs.”
85. “Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce.”
86. “The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
87. “The only way to deal with fear is to face it head-on.”
88. “Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you wish, but it will not replace you as the driver.”
89. “The ladder of success is best climbed by stepping on the rungs of opportunity.”
90. “The only purpose of education is to teach a student how to live his life—by developing his mind and equipping him to deal with reality.”
91. “Man’s unique reward, however, is that while animals survive by adjusting themselves to their background, man survives by adjusting his background to himself.”
92. “Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man’s mind.”
93. “Happiness is that state of consciousness which proceeds from the achievement of one’s values.”
94. “Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce.”
95. “The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”
96. “A creative man is motivated by the desire to achieve, not by the desire to beat others.”
97. “The only good institutions are those that protect individual freedom and rights, and the only bad institutions are those that violate these principles.”
98. “To say ‘I love you’ one must first be able to say the ‘I’.”
99. “The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.”

100. “The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live.”
101. “Achievement of your happiness is the only moral purpose of your life, and that happiness, not pain or mindless self-indulgence, is the proof of your moral integrity, since it is the proof and the result of your loyalty to the achievement of your values.”
102. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.”
103. “You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.”
104. “The only true guide to a man’s character is his actions.”
105. “The man who does not value himself, cannot value anything or anyone.”
106. “Happiness is not to be achieved at the command of emotional whims. Happiness is not the satisfaction of whatever irrational wishes you might blindly attempt to indulge. Happiness is a state of non-contradictory joy—a joy without penalty or guilt, a joy that does not clash with any of your values and does not work for your own destruction, not the joy of escaping from your mind, but using your mind’s fullest power.”
107. “Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”
108. “Productiveness is your acceptance of morality, your recognition of the fact that you choose to live—that productive work is the process by which man’s consciousness controls his existence, a constant process of acquiring knowledge and shaping matter to fit one’s purpose, of translating an idea into physical form, of remaking the earth in the image of one’s values.”
109. “Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong.”
110. “Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).”

FAQs:

Who was Ayn Rand?

Ayn Rand (1905-1982) was a Russian-American writer and philosopher. She is best known for her novels, “The Fountainhead” and “Atlas Shrugged,” and her philosophy of Objectivism.

What is Objectivism?

Objectivism is Ayn Rand’s philosophical system, which she described as “a philosophy for living on earth.” It emphasizes reason, individualism, and laissez-faire capitalism.

What are Ayn Rand’s most famous books?

Ayn Rand’s most famous books are “The Fountainhead” (1943) and “Atlas Shrugged” (1957). Both books have been widely read and have had a significant impact on popular culture and politics.

Did Ayn Rand have any political influence?

Yes, Ayn Rand’s ideas have had a significant impact on conservative and libertarian political thought in the United States. She was a strong advocate of laissez-faire capitalism and individual rights.

Did Ayn Rand win any awards?

Ayn Rand was the recipient of several awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985, which was awarded posthumously.

What is Ayn Rand’s philosophy of art?

Ayn Rand believed that art should be a celebration of human values, and that its purpose is to uplift and inspire. She advocated for what she called “romantic realism,” which she described as a style of art that presents an idealized version of reality.

Was Ayn Rand married?

Yes, Ayn Rand was married to Frank O’Connor, an actor and artist. They were married from 1929 until his death in 1979.

Did Ayn Rand have any children?

No, Ayn Rand did not have any children.

Was Ayn Rand an atheist?

Yes, Ayn Rand was an atheist. She believed that reason, not faith, was the proper means of understanding the world.

Where can I learn more about Ayn Rand? You can learn more about Ayn Rand and her philosophy by reading her books, attending lectures or conferences devoted to her ideas, or visiting the Ayn Rand Institute’s website.